This invention relates to gastrostomy feeding ports which are designed to be inserted through an opening in the wall of the abdomen and stomach of a patient for supplying nutrients, medicaments and other fluids to the patient's stomach. These feeding ports are useful in feeding and providing medical treatment to patients who are comatose or otherwise unconscious or unable to orally ingest food or medicine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,438 describes a low profile gastrostomy device which includes a flexible, hollow tube portion having a resilently deformable mushroom-shaped tip at the inner end and a pair of flat wings at the outer end.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,430 describes a device for intubating an ostomy having a fluid delivery lumen, an inflation lumen and an inflatable retention member. The device has a port near one end to dispose the inflation lumen to ambient air and an outlet at the other end to convey fluid from within the fluid delivery lumen into a patient.
U.S. Pat. No 4,834,712 describes a device for angular fixation of a delivery or drainage tube at the point where the tube exits through the skin from a body cavity. The components include a sleeve disposed along the feeding tube and a base elbow unit through which the feeding tube passes. The base elbow unit includes a subdermal portion, a sleeve engaging portion and a cylindrical tube engaging portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,014 describes a low profile gastrostomy device, for endoscopic placement in an incision provided through the stomach and abdominal walls of a patient, which has a collapsed resilient end portion within a shroud. The device is placed through the incision and the end portion expands to its normal size upon removal of the shroud.
U.S. Pat. No. 328,787 shows the ornamental design for a percutaneous replacement gastrostomy tube.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,732 describes a gastrostomy feeding port which includes a deformable conical tip portion having at least one side aperture therethrough, a tube portion extending rearwardly from the tip portion, a fitting portion on the rear end of the tube portion, a removable valve portion in the fitting portion, and a flange portion extending outwardly from the fitting portion.
The present invention is an improvement on the prior art devices, particularly the device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,732. The present invention overcomes the deficiency of the prior art devices which were limited to a specific length for each device. Thus, the prior devices were prone to leakage of contents from the stomach through the stoma and inadvertent removal of the device from the stomach. Unlike the prior devices, the present invention is elastically deformable to adjust to a wide variety of stoma lengths.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a gastrostomy feeding port which is elastically adjustable to a variety of stoma lengths. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a gastrostomy feeding port having the improvement over the feeding port of U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,732 of an elastically adjustable conical tip. It is an even further object of this invention to provide a gastrostomy feeding port comprising in open communication a retaining flange, a middle tube and a tip opposite said flange, wherein said tip has anchoring means connecting said tip to said tube which are elastically deformable toward said tip and engageable with the inner wall of the stomach at various lengths along said tube for preventing the inadvertent removal a pre-established stoma in the stomach.